The present invention relates to a label applicator device and, more particularly, to an applicator device which is capable of applying labels automatically to packages at an applicator station, with the orientation of the labels on the packages being selected by an operator.
Automatic labeling devices are used in supermarkets, stores, and other businesses for packaging meat, produce, and other items, conveying the packages to a weighing scale, computing the price of each package in accordance with its measured weight, printing a label with the computed price for each package, and applying the printed labels to the packages. One such prior art device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,878,909, issued Apr. 22, 1975, to Treiber, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
The Treiber '909 patent discloses a device which weighs each package and then conveys the package to a label application station. A label printer prints a label indicating the weight, price per pound, and total price of the package, and the label is transported by a belt conveyor to a label output station. An applicator head, positioned above the label output station, engages the label by means of a suction supplied through a suction opening in the bottom of the head. The applicator head is lowered by a mechanical linkage arrangement and the label is pressed against the top of the package. An electrical heater in the applicator head heats the label before it is applied to the top of the package so as to activate a heat sensitive adhesive coating on the label. The package is then conveyed beneath a roller which presses the label down firmly, ensuring that the label is firmly attached to the package.
Typically, each of the packages is conveyed through the weighing and labeling system with one of its longer edges being the leading edge, since the automatic wrapping and packaging system from which the weighing and labeling system receives the packages commonly provides them in this orientation. As a result the orientation of the label on each of the packages handled by the weighing and labeling system is the same. It will be appreciated that it may be desirable for the grocer to be able to select the orientation of the labels applied by such a system. As an example, a grocer may wish to arrange packages of meat in the refrigerated meat display case with either the longer or the shorter of the package edges being parallel to the front of the display case. If labels are applied to the packages with a label applicator device in which the orientations of the labels may not be altered, certain arrangements of the packages in the display case will result in the labels being oriented with the lines of characters running vertically rather than horizontal. As a consequence, the labels will not be as easy for customers to read.
Several different approaches have been used in prior art devices to provide for selective orientation of labels which are automatically applied to packages. In one prior art label applicator, labels from a printer are conveyed to an applicator along a label path in which a pin may be interposed. The leading edge of each label strikes the pin, causing the label to rotate 90.degree., thereby reorienting the label prior to its application to a package. This approach is somewhat unreliable, however, since rotation of the label is accomplished while the label is largely unsupported, and is therefore somewhat uncontrolled.
A second prior art approach is to reorient the packages as they are conveyed from the automatic wrapping and packaging system to the label application station. This unduly complicates the conveyor mechanism. Additionally, in conveyors of the type shown in the Treiber '909 patent in which packages are moved forward by means of rows of vertical package engaging fingers, the dimension of a package in the direction of conveyor movement cannot be greater than the distance between successive rows of fingers. As a consequence, while it may be possible to convey a relatively large package with a longer edge being the leading edge, it may not be possible to convey the package after it is rotated by 90.degree..
Accordingly, it is seen that there is a need for a label applicator device which is capable of applying labels to packages in either of two operator selected orientations without the need for reorienting the packages.